Don't ya just love it? When a band you've been listening to for ages just gets better and better. It's a rare thing nowadays.

I'm on a MASSIVE Charlatans kick, and I can't belive what I'm hearing.

"Some Friendly" was nice and stylish. "Spronston Green" being the true standout. Lots of funk and flash, but few really great songs to hang them on. Hammond organ leading the way.

Then with "Between 10 and 11th" they throw in some keys, and you see potential. Not quite great yet, but there are signs.

"Up To Our Hips" is looser. They've starting to find their groove. Not quite there yet, but now you can really see it coming. Style is starting to give way to well grounded songs. "Can't Get Out Of Bed" and 'Jesus Hairdo." The singer is actually learning how to write songs to suite his voice, and the band find their strengths.

"The Charlatans" is the watershed. Legs are being stretched. Acoustic guitars appear. Hammond organ and keys are now piano lines. The songs really start to play to strengths. Spots are carefully picked. Sense of purpose is established. Now you can really see it. "Just Lookin", "Tell Everyone", "Just When You're Thinking Things Over", "Here Comes A Soul Saver." This little style band is digging soul music, and they've found a way to make it work.

"Telling Stories" perfection. Fucking perfection. This little manchester dance band is now writing epic rock and roll songs. Grooving harder than ever, with perfect economy. Emotional resonance. Wild playing. Background vocals? in a Charlatans song? The funk is deeper, supporting the song, instead of being the song. "With No Shoes", "North Country Boy", "Telling Stories", "How Can You Leave Us", "Only Teethin." The list of great songs gets longer.

"Us And Us Only" when they go retro, it's supposed to be shit. Not their best album. Oh well, rules were made to be broken. Piano and acoustic blues. Pop songs with soul and style. Too many gems to mention, along with one of the best songs ever: "The Blind Stagger."

"Wonderland" The LA disco record. Don't dig it.

"Up At The Lake" I thought they already perfected perfection, then they drop this thing. Forming a career worth of sound into 1 album. Only now they've been writing and recording for 15 years. They're becoming masters. And it sounds like it. Fluid pop and rock with moving hips. Guitars, pianos, organs, and harmonies.

"Simpatico" they went reggae. And it blew.

They might just the best UK band of the last 17 years. Oasis and Radiohead should take notes.

Don't ya just love it? Who have you been listening to for ages? and how do they keep impressing you?

Their 80s-stuff - Self-titled, Freaky Styley, Uplift Mofo Party Plan - was fun but not really that good other than a song here and a song there.

Mother's Milk was better....melody was slowly working its way into the RHCP's output, and Frusciante and Smith were now on board after Hillel Slovak's death and the original drummer's subsequent departure.

Blood Sugar Sex Magic was/is a seminal record. One of the best records of the 90s. "Breaking The Girl", "Funky Monks", "I Could Have Lied", "Mellowship...", "Righteous And The Wiked","Blood Sugar Sex Magik", "The Greeting Song", "Sir Psycho Sexy", and of course, "Under The Bridge". The RHCP had come of age with one of the defining records of the 90s. The extended instrumental jam outro of "Sir Psycho Sexy" still blows me away. This is one of those records that just speaks for itself, so...

One Hot Minute was made with Dave Navarro during the absence of Frusciante as a result of his deep heroine addiction. Musically, the RHCP were more or less at a standstill with this record. It's not a great record but, despite the (undeserved) flack it recieves, there are still a handful of good tracks on it..."Warped" is incredible, it is The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows" meets U2's "The Fly", and was, I think, one of the most musically complex songs RHCP had released up to that point(not that it's a complex song, just by RHCP standards). "Aeroplane" is catchy as hell. "My Friends" is the best song on the record - RHCP do things with melody and harmony on this song that they had never done prior to it. "Tearjerker" and "Falling Into Grace" were good too.

Californication will always be remembered as two things: First, as John Frusciante's successful comeback record; Second, as the record on which the RHCP fully embraced the idea of pop music. Or as U2 calls it, 'rock music with pop sensibilities'. If I'm in the right mood, Californication is RHCP's best record. With songs like "Scar Tissue", "Otherside", "Californication", "Easily", "Parallel Universe", "This Velvet Glove", and "Savior", RHCP proved they could finally write an album full of songs built around melody and harmony and instrumentation, in which Keidis sings most of the time and "raps" here and there, instead of the other way around. With songs like "Around The World", "Get On Top", "Purple Stain", and "Right On Time", however, they proved they could also still do rap-rock with the best of them. And with "Road Trippin" AKA The Most Unbelievably Fucking Gorgeous Song Ever To Wear The RHCP Tag, the RHCP proved that they could write a real honest to god beginning to end no-busting-out-with-a-jam-at-the-end fully acoustic ballad with real honest to god lyrics that actually mean something and have some depth to them(haha, if you read just that last sentence, you'd think I hate RHCP...I love RHCP).

By The Way was far and away the most purely 'pop' record RHCP ever made. "Dosed", in fact, might be the single best pure pop song in the entire RHCP catalog. "Universally Speaking", "The Zeypher Song", "Can't Stop", "Midnight", "Tear", "On Mercury", "Warm Tape", and "Venice Queen", along with the aforementioned "Dosed", showcase RHCP with Frusciante in the (songwriting)lead, giving us "Cure"-like experimental instrumentation(think of the bridge in "Universally Speaking") intertwined with "Beatles"-like melody and harmony(ok they're not as good as Beatles songs but I couldn't think of a more apt comparison at the moment), and firing on all cylinders doing it. This record is a full 180 degrees from where the band started in the 80s.

Stadium Arcadium is epic. This record shows the (relatively) newfound diversity of the RHCP. From old-school rap-rock("Hump De Bump", "Readymade") to BSSM-era alternative rock("Charlie", "Torture Me", "Storm In A Teacup", "Turn It Again") to Californication-era pop-rock("Dani California", "She's Only 18", "Espcially In Michigan", "Desecration Smile", "21st Century", "Made You Feel Better") to Californication-era Scar-Tissue-style ballads("Slow Cheetah") to By-The-Way era pure pop("Snow[Hey Oh]", "Stadium Arcadium", "Hey", "Tell Me Baby", "Hard To Concentrate", "She Looks To Me", "If", "Death Of A Martian"), it's all there. And I think it even creates a brand new era of RHCP. They've never done ANYTHING like "Wet Sand". Who would've ever thought RHCP would do 'epic' songs?

Supergrass They haven't cut a bad record yet, and have improved exponentially as songwriters since their first album (which, admittedly, is my favorite). And now they have another coming out later this year...

Also, the Flaming Lips are a perfect example. Ever since Transmissions, they have found ways to be interesting and improve as a band, which is why I love them.

Oh, and Beck never overcame Sea Change and, as a result, went back to Scientology and consolidated. Ugh. Circa 2000/2001, though, I would've been all over putting his ass at the top of the heap, for what it's worth.